Finally made it to Chao Phaya
Alright, so it's only one lunch, but at least I made it ;o)
Does the New Brunswick, NJ area have room for one more good thai place? You bet it does.
I had the papaya salad and the Chao Phaya fried rice. It was easy to tell that all the ingredients were fresh and good quality.
The papaya salad was very good, rivaling the only local competition, Thai Chili, as Pad Thai in Highland Park does not make papaya salad. The rice was also good and I give them huge props for using fresh pinapple, as this is a corner that almost every other place cuts. It was overall a good and filling dish, but not quite at the level of the sausage fried rice at Pad Thai.
I will certainly be going back to try some of the regular dishes and the curries and can add my "thumbs up" to those already given here.
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I tried Chao Phaya today in Somerville because my Thai Kitchen in Bridgewater was closed for the week and so was Thailand Restaurant in Clark (I'll be SO happy when they come back) and would NEVER go back to Chao Phaya. It wasnt terrible, but I would not consider it good by any standard and definitely not as good as some of the other thai places in the area. We asked for medium spice as everyone said this place is spicy, but medium was mild anywhere else and not spicy at all. Also, their menu tends to leave out some of the items they put in their food that I would have wanted to be taken out. The fried rice I ordered had tomatoes in it, which I hate, and nowhere on the menu did it mention the tomatoes, and there was also pineapple in the dish I ordered that wasn't mentioned. It was also more expensive than some other places for what we got. Not worth it at all!
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re: J1Scarlett
I disagree with you on only one count: Chao Phaya *is* terrible. Why anyone eats the slop they serve up with Thai names is a mystery even Sherlock Holmes couldn't solve. But here's a hot tip: We had our usual Saturday lunch at the sushi bar in Shumi (also in Somerville) and to my surprise, who was sitting at a table in the adjoining Jack's Pot (very good Thai food) but the manager and two of our usual waiters from Thai Kitchen, Bridgewater. They know me welI, so I approached their table and in a whisper said, "Don't worry Your secret's safe with me." To their credit, they all but fell out of their seats laughing
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seal
Jan 5, 2007 10:42 AM
I have only been to the Mie Thai in Woodbridge, and I enjoyed most of what I ate there. Is this newish place affiliated with them?
So far I would rank the local Thai places like this:
1) Thai Chili - Spotswood
2) Pad Thai - Highland Park
3) Chao Phaya - New BrunswickThai Chili has the best overall food with no losers in the mix at all, although the rice is comparably bland.
Pad Thai has the best dish with the Sausage Fried rice and I disagree with some recent posts about the lack of quality in their meats. Also their Jumbo Shrimp with Avocado! is one of the best curries around.
Chao Phaya impressed me with the one visit and I look forward to trying more of their items.
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Sounds like it's worth a try! Have you been to the newish Mie Thai on Rte 27, just south of Dosa Grill? We're going tomorrow but haven't heard much about it. Any advice? Or words of warning?
I hear that the new Thai place in Princeton is about as bad as Thai Village. Would it kill someone to have good thai here?!›3 Replies-
re: brownie
I guess that it is too late (by a few months) to warn you about Mie Thai on Rt. 27. I ate there once, and I will not return. The God-awful congealed mess of noodles in gloppy gravy that they served me was certainly not Thai food, and would qualify as being bad in any cuisine that I am aware of.
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re: val ann c
val ann--I suspect that we are talking about different vile pseudo-Thai restaurants with the same name. The one to which I referred is located on Rt. 27 in North Brunswick, just north of Finnegan's Lane. As it opened only within the last 6 months or so, you must have gone to a different restaurant.
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